Chapter Twenty-Two

 

 

He jolted awake.

A loud noise reverberated through the house. Slowly, Shea’s sleep-addled mind soon identified the impatient punch of the doorbell and he staggered from the bed.

Isobel gained her feet as he stuck his head through the collar of his T-shirt.

“It’s almost three o’clock.” Fear infected her tone.

In the hallway, Finn hovered outside his bedroom door, shirtless and barefoot. Together, they moved toward the sound of furious fists pounding on the front door while Isobel hurried after them.

At the door, Shea peered through the transom window and flicked on the porch light. “What the…?”

When he opened the door, Sidney Shaw and her father, Ray, confronted them. Fury contorted Ray’s blunt features, and his fingers bit into his daughter’s upper arm. He glared at Shea with blurry, bloodshot eyes.

But Shea’s focus had riveted on Sidney’s ravaged face. Tears had ruined her heavy makeup, which streaked down her cheeks in thick rivers of black, and her left eye had nearly swollen shut.

“You bastard.” Finn lunged.

Shea jumped between the two men and shoved two hands into Finn’s torso to hold him back.

“Easy,” he said, leaning hard against his son’s coiled body. “Easy now.”

“Finn, I’m so sorry,” Sidney whispered.

“You son of a bitch,” Ray slurred.

“Do not talk to my son that way,” Shea warned the intoxicated man.

Ray’s face reddened with rage. “Do you know what he did?”

Sidney struggled against Ray’s brutal grasp. “No, Dad—”

Ray’s hand came up, his intent clear, and Sidney covered her head with both of her arms.

But Ray’s strike was thwarted when Finn burst through the barricade of Shea’s bigger body and clamped a hand around the man’s wrist. “Don’t you dare touch her.”

Shea gaped at Finn, marveling at the change in him from gangly teen to menacing man.

Jaw clenched tight, Finn stared daggers through Ray Shaw. “Sidney, come inside.”

Huge tears clung to Sidney’s eyelashes. “Finn, I…”

Finn’s gaze shifted to her then. “It’s okay. Just come inside and we’ll talk.”

Sidney scurried across the threshold and Shea pulled the front door closed. With a disgusted shove, Finn released Ray.

Shea moved to stand beside his son.

“This is your fault, you little shit.” Spittle propelled from Ray’s mouth as he backpedaled.

Then, the heel of his foot the caught empty space of the top porch step and he tumbled backwards down the short flight of stairs to land on his ass in the lawn. He staggered to his feet and his hands balled into fists at his sides.

“If you think I’m going to take care of your mistake, you’re wrong.” Ray weaved as though a breeze disturbed his balance. “You knocked her up, you deal with it.”

Shock and alarm whipped through Shea and his head snapped around, but Finn appeared unaffected by Ray’s accusation.

Coolly, Finn jerked his chin. “Go home, old man. And stay the hell away from Sidney.”

“You little—” Ray charged.

White teeth flashed in Finn’s dark face and he braced for battle, but Ray drew back his arm with an overexaggerated windup that Shea caught easily in midair. With a vicious wrench, he twisted Ray’s arm behind his back and slammed him face first into a porch beam.

“What the hell is wrong with you? You come to my house and threaten my son?” Shea slammed him again. “And if you put that bruise on your daughter’s face, so help me God, I’m going to tear you apart.”

Ray squirmed and kicked out with his leg, so Shea wedged his arm against the man’s throat until his eyes widened with panic and his face mottled with red. In an instant, the past came rushing at him. The terror and chaos of life with a violent drunk reawakened his rage, and with it came the knowledge of the most efficient and ruthless means to take the asshole down.

He increased the pressure on Ray’s throat by slow, steady increments, until finally his smaller body sagged. In the next moment, Shea experienced a flood of relief that Sidney had gone inside so she didn’t hear her father’s next words.

“She’s a whore,” Ray wheezed. “Just like her mother.”

Hatred surged. Shea clamped a hand around Ray’s throat and squeezed. Then he flung the weaker man into the darkened void of the yard. “Get the hell off my property.”

Together, Shea and Finn advanced toward Ray as he climbed clumsily to his feet.

Eyeing them with his unfocused gaze, Ray dragged a hand across his mouth. “Fine. She’s your problem now. You tell her not to come running back home this time.”

“To you?” Finn sneered. “Never.”

His chest expanding with his deep breaths, Ray glowered at them. He was outmanned and slowly, his alcohol-soaked mind realized it. He gave his head a shake, which disrupted his balance as he lurched toward his battered truck. The headlights came on and he whipped out of the driveway, spewing a spray of gravel with his tires.

The uncomfortable silence that followed had Finn driving a hand through his dark hair.

Shea looked into his son’s face, a face both similar and unlike his own. Chaos churned across Finn’s sharp features and brought to Shea’s mind the terrifying moment nineteen years ago when he had just learned that he was about to be a dad.

Reaching out, he slipped a hand to the back of Finn’s neck and squeezed. The breeze rustled the leaves on the trees.

“What do you want to do first?” Shea asked quietly. “Talk to me, or talk to Sidney?”

The color left Finn’s face, but he set his chin with a resolute nod. “Sidney.”

When they stepped through the front door, Sidney sprang to her feet. On the couch beside her, Isobel rose slowly.

Sidney rushed forward, clutching a blanket tightly around her shoulders. “Finn…” Her mouth opened and closed several times, but no words came out.

“What’s going on, Sid?”

“I’m so sorry.” Her gaze bounced around room, landing briefly on each of them. “I didn’t mean for any of this to happen.”

“Is it true?” Finn asked softly.

Tears welled in Sidney’s large eyes while shame and humiliation burned on her pale cheeks.

Finn approached her with caution, as though she were a frightened animal he expected to bolt at any moment.

“It’s okay, Sid. I just need you to tell me the truth. Nothing bad is going to happen, I promise.” Finn tucked a strand of her hair behind one ear. “We’re going to help you. How far along are you?”

A gasp escaped Isobel and her gaze collided with Shea’s. A violent sea of panic and pain tossed him around like a ragdoll.

“There’s nothing for you to do,” Sidney said.

Quiet, Finn considered her. The moment drew out, long and terrible, until he detonated a dirty bomb in their midst.

“Then I’m going to marry you.”

“What?” Isobel’s shrill cry pierced the air. “No, absolutely not, no way. You cannot get married. Finn, you’re in high school.”

“So?” Finn lifted his shoulders and perched his hands on his hips. “I’ll work on the weekends until we graduate. If it’s too hard, I’ll quit school. It’s no big deal.”

The past was playing out before him. It was there in the cornered look in Isobel’s soft eyes and the pale, stricken expression on Sidney’s youthful face. Even in Finn’s reckless attempt to put an end to the terrifying uncertainty. Like a recurring dream with no escape, or a slow-motion nightmare, Shea relived every detail in vivid horror.

“You are not quitting school,” he said over the steady stream of his wife’s flabbergasted sputtering. “But we aren’t going to figure it all out tonight. Let’s get some sleep and in the morning, we’ll talk. Finn, why don’t you make Sidney a bed in the family room?”

Shea and Finn exchanged a look, one man to another, and the trust brimming in Finn’s light eyes did much to lessen the tension bunching Shea’s muscles.

“She can sleep in my room,” Finn said, then over his parents’ vehement protests, quickly added, “I’ll take the couch.”

After Finn took Sidney down the hall, Shea made a quick call to the police station while Isobel paced in front of him. A sad fact of his job as pub owner was that he had the number to the dispatch desk memorized. Bonnie took his call, and he told her about their visit from Ray.

“He’s been drinking.”

“Got someone on it, doll. Hey, tell that cute brother of yours we miss him around here.”

“Will do. Thanks, Bonnie.”

The second he disconnected the call, Isobel whirled on him. “What are we going to do?”

He shrugged. “There’s not much we can do.”

“We can forbid him. You’re his dad. Tell him no, he’s not getting married.”

“He’ll be eighteen in a few days. He’s his own man.”

“Oh. My. God.” She pressed the flat of her hand against her forehead. “I’m going to be a grandmother.”

Shea chewed the smile from his lips.

Her hand dropped heavily to her side. “Why aren’t you freaking out about this?”

“We don’t even have all the facts. Let’s wait—”

“He just asked her to marry him.” Isobel’s voice climbed with her mounting hysteria. “What other facts do we need?”

“Do I want him to get married? No. I want him to go to college, date some girls, study hard and find the thing that’s going to give him the best shot at being truly happy in life. But what if she’s that thing?”

“They’re children!”

“We did it.”

“And look what’s happened to us.” She was shaking her head. “No. We can’t let him make the same mistake we made.”

Pain sliced him. “Is that what you think? That our life together is a mistake?”

“Shea, I…”

Her silence slashed at his bleeding heart. It was true. Had she felt that way all along? Since the day they married, and even until the day she filed for divorce?

“That’s not what I meant.” Frustration glistened in her eyes. “This isn’t about us. It’s about Finn, and we can’t let him throw his life away for this girl.”

“If it’s what he wants, how will we stop him?”

“We’ll—we’ll forbid him.”

“And if he doesn’t listen?” He let the question hang in the space between them. “Will we disown him, Isobel? Throw him out of the house and out of our lives?”

Tears brimmed in her eyes, then spilled over to stream silently down her cheeks.

“I won’t tell Finn how to feel about her—it’d be the height of hypocrisy—and I won’t abandon him.” For every tear she shed, another notch gashed his heart. “No matter what he’s done. Even if you can’t forgive me for it.”

Her chin trembled and her hand flitted uselessly through the air. “I’ve been that girl. Lost and lonely. He’ll marry her because he has a good heart, but he won’t be happy and…” She shook her head. “You know the rest.”

“I do.” He swallowed thickly. “I was in love with that girl. And you’re right, I wasn’t happy. Happy doesn’t begin to describe my life with you.”

Such a silly word to describe the sweet, maddening joy. The essentialness.

“Please don’t.”

“Don’t tell you the truth?” The hole in his chest ripped wide open. “I’ve never lied to you, Isobel, but I haven’t been completely honest with you either.”

Apprehension filled her eyes.

“I’m glad you wound up pregnant.”

Her lips parted with her shocked gasp.

“I didn’t set out to make it happen, but when you told me, I was happy, because it meant I could make you mine. And I’ve never regretted marrying you. Not once. Not even a little.”

Her tears had stopped and she wiped a trail of moisture from her cheeks.

“If given the chance to do it all over again, I’d make the same choice.” Emotion roughened his gruff voice. “A thousand times, a thousand different scenarios, I’d pick you. I loved you and I wanted to be with you. I loved our baby, though I had no idea who they might turn out to be. My life was you. Period. Everything else was just white noise.

A sickening wrench twisted his gut. “But I’m just now realizing I was the only one who felt that way.”

Suddenly, her gaze snapped to something behind him.

He turned to find Finn hovering at the edge of the kitchen. A terrible torment clung to him when shuffled over to the refrigerator and tugged open the freezer door. After a brief search, he retrieved an ice pack and eased the door shut.

“How is she?” Shea asked.

Finn raised the ice pack. “For her eye. She wanted a minute alone.”

“You okay?”

His dark head bobbed.

Shea experienced a pang of sympathy. “You didn’t know she was pregnant, did you?”

“No.” Finn scratched a spot on his shoulder. “She keeps apologizing. Says she doesn’t want to stay here.”

“She doesn’t have to stay,” Isobel began.

“I don’t want her to leave,” Finn blurted, raw emotion shredding his voice.

At the possessive outburst, Shea captured his son’s panicked gaze. “She can’t keep you from your child. There are laws. I’ll help you.”

Surprise siphoned the blood from Finn’s face. “Oh, uh, that’s not… The baby isn’t mine.”

In the heavy silence, Shea and Isobel exchanged a look.

“Are you certain?” Isobel prodded gently. “Condoms can break.”

“We didn’t use a condom.”

A deluge of castigations erupted from Shea and Isobel until Finn held up his hands.

“We didn’t use a condom because we didn’t… do it.” He flushed miserably.

“But…?” Isobel frowned with her confusion. “You knew you weren’t the father when you offered to marry her?”

Finn hitched his shoulder. “I thought it would help.”

Isobel stared after him as he shuffled down the hall.

Then she turned to Shea with a feeble smile. “He reminds me of you. Always trying to be the hero.”

The words were innocent enough, but they chafed his wounded pride. “Maybe he wasn’t trying to be a hero. Maybe he just sees something he wants, something he needs, and he isn’t willing to let it go. Did that possibility even occur to you?”

She stared, stunned and mute.

“I’ll take that as a no.”

“Why are you so angry with me?”

“I’m not angry, I’m tired. I’m tired of being the bad guy. I’m tired of explaining myself to you. You want to assume the worst about me? Go right ahead. I won’t stop you. Hell, I won’t even get offended. Not anymore. You wanna know why?”

He didn’t wait for her to answer.

“Because it has nothing to do with me. This is about you, and why you can’t believe anyone would love you.”

She stumbled back a step and her face crumpled with hurt. Hurt he’d caused. She appeared fragile, as though she might crumble into a pile of broken pieces on the floor. In the past, he would’ve held her together. But not this time. This time, she had to do it for herself. She had to collect all her shattered parts and fit them back together again. That, he couldn’t do for her.

Without speaking the words screaming inside his heart, he left her alone to figure it out. Without him.